Solid State Micro Technology For Music

Usually referred to by the the acronym SSM which can mean Solid State Micro Technolgy for Music, Solid State Music Technology or Solid State Microelectronics depending on which documentation one looks at.

The company
Solid State Music Technology (SSM) was one of two companies that in the mid-1970s designed and sold analog integrated circuits used in synthesizers, the other was Curtis Electromusic Specialties. Founded in 1975 by John Robert Burgoon, it originated out the Homebrew Computer Club, an early 1970s Silicon Valley computer hobbyist group.

SSMs first products were computer boards for the now-obsolete S-100 bus standard, including some boards intended for music applications. As Dave Rossum told the story in a 1981 interview with Polyphony magazine, an engineer named Ron Dow had come to E-mu Systems looking for funding to develop a voltage controlled amplifier on a chip. However, the proposed design would not have been compatible with the modular synthesizers that E-mu was selling at the time, so they turned Dow down. Dow then went to SSM and they agreed to fund the project and market it. The result was the first synthesizer-specific integrated circuit, the SSM 2000 VCA. The following year, Dow came back with an idea for an improved design that was compatible with E-mu's systems and E-mu became involved with SSM in the design, the result was the SSM 2010.

E-mu became both a co-creator and a customer for SSMs circuits, incorporating the ICs into their modulars; Rossum consulted with Dow and SSM on the designs. Shortly after, E-mu consulted with Oberheim on their first non-SEM polyphonic synth designs using the SSM ICs. SSM chips were used in many late-1970s and early-1980s polyphonic analog synths, including the Oberheim models of the day, the Voyetra 8, and the rev 1 and 2 Prophet-5s. Connoisseurs of such things consider the SSM chips to produce a "thicker" and "ballsier" sound than the Curtis design, but the SSMs had some reliability problems and by 1985 most designers that were still specifying these types of ICs had switched to Curtis.

SSM was bought out by PMI, which in turn was acquired by Analog Devices, the current owner. Most of the classic SSM synth-specific designs are long out of production, but AD does still produce some of the VCA circuits and matched transistor arrays.

SSM ICs

 * SSM 2000 - Dual linear-antilog voltage controlled amplifier (VCA)
 * SSM 2010 - VCA
 * SSM 2011 - Audio preamplifier system
 * SSM 2012 - VCA
 * SSM 2013 - VCA
 * SSM 2014 - Operational voltage controlled element
 * SSM 2015 - Microphone preamplifier
 * SSM 2020 - Monolithic /log/antilog amplifier
 * SSM 2022 - Dual linear-antilog VCA
 * SSM 2024 - Quad current controlled amplifier (quad VCA)
 * SSM 2030 - Voltage controlled oscillator (VCO)
 * SSM 2031 - High frequency oscillator/voltage to frequency converter
 * SSM 2033 - VCO
 * SSM 2036 - VCO
 * SSM 2038 - VCO
 * SSM 2040 - Voltage controlled filter (VCF)
 * SSM 2044 - four pole voltage controlled filter
 * SSM 2045 - Music Voicing System (2-Pole and 4-Pole Low Pass VCF and Mixer/VCA)
 * SSM 2047 - Music voicing system
 * SSM 2050 - Voltage controlled transient generator
 * SSM 2055 - Voltage controlled transient generator
 * SSM 2056 - Voltage controlled transient generator
 * SSM 2060 - Digitally controlled voice
 * SSM 2110 - Audio level detection system
 * SSM 2164 - Low Cost Quad Voltage Controlled Amplifier
 * SSM 2300 - 8 channel multiplexed sample and hold

Synthesizers using SSM ICs

 * Akai VX600	- 1 CEM 3374B, 1 CEM 3378, 9 SSM 2300
 * Aries System 300 - 1 SSM2030 in the AR-338, 2 SSM2030 in the AR-341
 * Bananna Poly Synth - 6 SSM 2044
 * Buchla 296e - 8 SSM 2020
 * Crumar Bit 01 - 6 SSM 2044 in early models
 * Crumar Bit 99 - 6 SSM 2044
 * Crumar Performer B - SSM 2040, SSM 2050
 * Crumar Trilogy - 1 SSM 2020
 * Digisound 80-11 - 1 SSM 2020
 * Digisound 80-7 - 1 SSM 2040
 * Digisound 80-8 - 1 SSM 2050
 * Division 6 Filtare SEIII -
 * Doepfer A-105 - 1 SSM 2044
 * E-mu Systems Drumulator - 2 SSM 2044
 * E-mu Systems SP-12 - 2 SSM 2044
 * E-mu Systems SP-1200 - 2 SSM 2044
 * E-mu Systems Emulator - 4 SSM 2044
 * E-mu Systems Emulator II - 8 SSM 2045
 * E-mu Systems Emax - 4 SSM 2300, 8 SSM 2047
 * Ensoniq ESQ1 - 4 SSM 2300
 * Ensoniq SQ-80 - 4 SSM 2300
 * Fairlight CMI II - 8 SSM 2045 in later versions
 * Kawai/Teisco K3 & K3m - 6 SSM 2044
 * Kawai/Teisco SX-210 - 8 SSM 2044
 * Kawai/Teisco SX-240 - 8 SSM 2044
 * Korg Monopoly - 4 SSM 2033, 1 SSM 2044
 * Korg Poly 61 - 6 SSM 2056
 * Korg Poly 6 - 6 SSM 2044, 6 SSM 2056
 * Octave Plateau Voyetra 8 - 8 SSM 2024, 8 SSM 2044
 * PPG Wave 2.2 & 2.3 - 8 SSM 2044
 * RSF Kobol Expander I - 1 SSM 2040, 2 SSM 2050
 * Sequential Circuits Prophet 5 Rev 1 & 2 - 10 SSM 2020, 11 SSM 2030, 5 SSM 2040, 10 SSM 2050
 * SIEL DK600 - 6 SSM 2024, 2 SSM 2031, 6 SSM 2044, 6 SSM 2056
 * SIEL DK-80 - 2 SSM2045
 * SIEL EX-80 - 1 SSM2045
 * SIEL Kiwi - 6 SSM2024, 2 SSM2031, 6 SSM2044, 6 SSM2056
 * SIEL Opera 6 - 6 SSM 2024, 2 SSM 2031, 6 SSM 2044, 6 SSM 2056
 * Simmons SDS5 - 1 SSM 2044 per module
 * Simmons MTX9 - 1 SSM 2300
 * Solton SM100 - 6 SSM 2045, 12 SSM 2056
 * Solton Programmer 24 1 CEM 3350, 1 SSM 2044
 * SRM Synthesizer Octave Cat -
 * Steiner EVI - SSM 2040?
 * Synthesis Technology MOTM 440 - 4 SSM 2210, 5 SSM 2220
 * Thomas Henry: A four-pole lowpass VCF - SSM 2040
 * Thomas Henry: A one-chip ADSR - SSM 2056
 * Voyetra 8 -
 * Waldorf Wave - 16 SSM 2024

Data sheets
Data sheets are freely available from:
 * MaxMidi Rare Silicon
 * SSM 2013, SSM 2020, SSM 2022, SSM 2024, SSM 2033, SSM 2038, SSM 2040, SSM 2044, SSM 2045, SSM 2056, SSM 2110, SSM 2300


 * CEM3374.com
 * SSM 2012, SSM 2013, SSM 2014, SSM 2015, SSM 2020, SSM 2022, SSM 2024, SSM 2030, SSM 2033, SSM 2038, SSM 2040, SSM 2044, SSM 2045, SSM 2047, SSM 2050, SSM 2056, SSM 2120